Improvement in machines for manufacturing chenille



afi. Wwwwr i my@ /M NA PETERS, PHOTmLTHOGRAPHER wASmNGTON D C UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE COMINGS AND LOUIS MENSING, OF vNF YORK, N. Y.

VIMPROVEMENT lN MACHINES FOR MANUFACTURING CHENlLLE.

Specification forming part of .Letters Patent No. 37,385, dated January13, 1863.

To all whom t may concern.-

Be it known that we, GEORGE GoMINGs and LOUIS MENSING, both of No. 50White street, in the city, county, and State of New York, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Manufacturing Chenille; and we dohereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,forming part of this speciiication.

The ordinaryT process of making chenille is by rst weaving'a web withthe warp-threads separated at intervals, next dividing -the said webinto strips by cutting the weft-threads in the intervals of the warp,and then twisting the saidstrips. This process is necessarily very slow,owing to the unavoidable slowness of the weavin g. A more recentEuropean -method consists in taking what is called gimp, made by windinground two or more wires,placed side by side, the silk or other fibroussubstance which is to form the weft or iilling of the chenille, passingthe said gimp between' the threads which are to form the warp or centralcore of the chenille, cutting the covering of the gimp in such manner asto divide every coil, drawing out the wires of the gimp, and twistingthe warp or corethreads together. This method is attended with theserious objection that the chenille thus made is necessarily produced inshort pieces or lengths, as the wires must be kept perfectly parallel,which involves the employment of short wires. Long wires cannot beemployed owing to the impossibility of bending and coiling themrepeatedly upon small rollers, and yet stretching them at the propermoment into a perfectly parallel position.

Unless this parallel position can be perfectly maintained the knife willfail to cut the gimp, and bad work, with waste of material, will ensue.The result is that short wires are always employed, and the chenilleproduced is consequently made in short pieces about four and a half feetin length.

O'ur improvement consists in certain new and useful devices formanufacturing the article in connection with flexible cords, so thatchenille of the best quality unlimited in length may be rapidly andcheaply produced.

Figure l in the accompanying drawings is a vertical section of themachine employed in carrying out our process. Fig. 2 is a plan of thesame, partly in'section. Fig. 3 is a perspective view, exhibiting theaction of the knife which cuts the weft. Fig. 4 is a central section ofthe lroll upon which the cutting of the weft is performed.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding vparts in theseveral figures.

A B is the framing of the machine, intended4 when in operation to besuspended round the neck of theoperator and held with the board or end Bagainstl his breast. 4

AO vis a spool or drum, for carrying the gimp from whose covering ofsilk or other material the weft or yfillin g of the chenille is to bemade, fitted to turn on a fixed spindle, c, n ear the bottom of theframe, under the ycontrol of friction-bands a, applied to its heads.

D .and E are spools, for supplying the two threads of silk or othermaterial which are to compose the warp or central core of the chenille,arranged one at the bottom and the other at the top of the machine,parallel with the spool O, on xed spindles d and e, on which they arefitted to turn under the control of frictionbands d and e. applied totheir heads.

f is the gimp, which should preferably be made with two cords arrangedside by side parallel or without being twisted together. Gimp with lessthan two cords cannotbe used.

g is the thread supplied from the spool D, and g* is the thread suppliedfrom the spool E. The gimp is conducted from the spool O over aroll, F,and under a second roll, G, to a larger roll, H, all of which areparallel with the spools O D E, the said rolls either being arranged toturnv on fixed spindles or made with journals to turn in xed bearings inthe framing. The rolls F and Ghave square-bottomed grooves for thereception of the gimp, which rests flatwise in or upon the bottoms ofthe said grooves. The roll H has a fiatbottomed groove, b, in which thegimp lies flatwise, and a second and very narrow groove, i, in thecenter of the bottom of b for the reception of the warp-thread g, whichpasses from the spool D through a guide, m, secured to the framing, andenters the said groove i below where the gimp enters the groove b. Thegimp and the thread g pass upward over the roller H, and the gimp meetsthe fixed knife L, which is held in a clamp, M, secured to the framing,and in passing the point of this knife its covering is cut in every coilon the outer side of the gimp, leaving itv intact on the side next theroll and leaving its two internal cords, 5 5, exposed. The thread g*from the spool E is conducted through a guide, j, secured to the framingand round A- into short pieces of a length equal to the cir-" cumferenceof the gimp, is now seized at the middle of the length of such piecesbetween-u the two threads g gt, which pass from the roller H, through aguide, l, to a rotating spindle or some other twisting device, while thecords 5 5 pass upward away from the roll H, through grooves in separaterolls J and K, working on spindles secured in the framing.

To produce the above-described operation, the gimpl and the threads ggi* are first conducted round the several rolls and through the guides,as described, and represented in Fig. 1, and the ends of the cords 5 5of the gimp aremade fast to some fixed point, and the ends of thethreads g rf1 fastened to a spindle or other article having a rotarymotion, but so arranged as not -to wind the said threads upon it. Theoperator, who may be a child, then holds the machine with the board orend B of the frame against the front of his body, its weight beingsupported by a strap passing round the back of the neck, and walks backward, thereby causing the gimp and threads to be drawn from theirrespectivev spools. The twist given during this operation to thewarpthreads g-g* is merely sufficient to hold the filling or weft, andthe chenille is finished by a subsequent twisting operation, which maybe performed by the saine means adopted for giving the twist in the oldmode of manufacture. In some cases it might be desirable to use morethan two warp-threads, and in such case we would use an equal number oneach side of the filling.

- We do not claim broadly, the cutting of the covering-threads of gimpand transferring it between threads in order to form chenille 5 but 2.Having the gimp arranged and carried l upon cords f, as herein setforth, so that chenille in pieces of any desirable length may beproduced, as set forth.

GEO. OOMINGS. LOUIS MENSING.

Witnesses:

J AMES LAIRD, RICHARDSON GAWLEY.

What we claim as our invention, and de-

